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Pentemple - O))) Presents...

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 June 13 2008 at 07:25:02 AM



After reading quite a few negative observations about this album, here and there on forums, I hadn't much hope for it. I put-off buying it actually. Well, I broke down and purchased it knowing full well I'd probably shell out the cash for the vinyl version as well as the expanded, 2-disc, Daymare version (the second disc will have 30-40min of extra music which I've heard is this album remixed). I've listened to this about three times now I have to say that I like it.

First things first, the album contains live drums. Apparently something that's never been done at a SUNN 'ritual' (as they like to call it). Sin Nanna of Striborg fame is the man behind the traps and he actually plays quite well. The drums are all over the place... think free-form jazz. Despite the discordant rhythm throughout all but about half of the second track (the album's two-tracks long) it never once comes across as obnoxious, out-of-place or intrusive. It follows the guitar riffs some but is it's own animal for most of the album.

This two-track, 43 minute album is essentially mass chaos being constrained by drone. Kind of a battle between light and dark. It's as if the drums, vox and guitar are trying to break free of the drone's grasp. This battle rages on for about 70% of the performance. For a while the chaos is overpowering. Then, one-by-one, said elements slowly submit and give up only to join the momentum that tried to subdue them in the first place.

The piece opens with hum and feedback of the guitars, Attila's screeching and heavily reverberated grunts from Sin Nanna (if you've heard Striborg you know what I mean). The warped and twisted contributions by both vocalists indirectly set the tone as to what's to come. While the vox are starting to layer and overlap, O'Malley begins playing KTL like riffs (think Forest Floor 1 from the debut album), the drums start and thus begins the cacophony.

The heavily slanted, Jap crust-core like riffs are the first to give up early on withering into feedback. Then it's drums. They give up around 13 minutes in on the second track. This defeat is accompanied by Sin Nanna's fading and processed screams. For a jam/improv piece, the timing couldn't have been better for both to occur. Attila's vox remain but the screams and screeches become more feeble as time goes on eventually turning into silence shortly after the drums give in. The whole thing comes together in victory march like drone that began and started to swell from the bass and guitar foundation of Anderson and Ambarchi and ends. There are some Sin Nanna vox here and there but the piece ends as if it were a phoenix rising from the ashes to fly again.

All in all this is a somewhat diverse piece for SUNN. Is it so diverse that they refrained from labeling it a SUNN release? Who knows or for that matter, cares. The diversity plays largely in part due to the drums and fast riffs played by O'Malley in the beginning of the piece. The rest is sorta your standard fare by the band. I tend to enjoy SUNN's live performance albums over their studio work and this is a great addition to their live catalog. Each live album offers something different (for the most part) which makes each release unique and this album is no different from that sentiment.

[chrisALPINO]

Pentemple
O))) Presents...
2008
Southern Lord Records
http://southernlord.com
type: reviews    keywords: doom, drone, sin nanna, lhp015,   

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